Sunday, March 20, 2005

The Owl Festival

Yesterday was the Owl Festival. Every year the bird watching society hosts a day for bird watching, ending with an owl walk at night through the woods. It's quite fun, with crafts for the kids, a small exposition on local birds, and a picnic dinner. We have lots of owls about. There are the tiny screech owl, the barn own (that the French call 'the White Lady') and lots of others. The barn owls are quite common. Two nest nearby our house. I see them often, and once they woke me up by tapping my windowpane in the middle of the night! I pulled open the curtains and came face-to-face with two huge barn owls. I don't know who was most startled. One flew away, but the other stayed and stared at me until my husband sat up and asked what I was doing.

"Hush!" I said, but it was too late. The owl spread his wings and glided away. They looked like two fat, stuffed, children's toys with large, heart-shaped white faces. I don't usually see them so close up, but I do see them at the golf course when we play during the evening. My husband and I love to golf, and as he gets home from work late, we usually start around 7pm. In May and June, it doesn't get dark until at least 10 pm, so we golf late. And the owls love to pounce on mice our balls hit into the rough have startled. The owls usually follow us as we make our way along the quiet course. We're often the only ones on the course at that time of night, and it's defintely my favorite time to play golf!

1 comment:

This reminded me of one year, during March at Eastertime, when I was at our island cottage with the kids. I opened the franklin heater door and there was a big owl sitting on the grate staring at me. Of course I was startled (so was he!) He flew out into the room and I was afraid he'd come at me with his talons. I couldn't get him out the door. Eventually had to call a neighbour for help and using a broom, coaxed and directed it back to the outdoors. Poor critter must have been quite frightened! I guess he had fallen down through the chimney. I have no idea of how long he'd been sitting there inside the stove!